St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-15
LIVING IN LONDON.
AT Hotels and Restaurants-The
Tips-Brussels Sprouts.

1t is a popular idea in the United.
States that living in London is much
cheaper than with us. 1t may be that
there are some places in London where
you can live more cheaply than i'll cor
responding situation in New York.
| But it must be somewhat out in the
remote suburbs. Clothing is very much
cheaper, and everything relating to fur
niture and some of the better class of
manufactures can be bought here for
much less price. But the actual cost of
living is very much higher. Rents are
| higher than with us. Taxes are
! higher, and the cost of maintain
ing. an establishment is very much
higher. The. pay of servants may be
less. but you have to have more of them.
1t is also true that the cab fares in Lon
don are less than. they are in New York,
but the distances are SO great that the
expense of going about is more than
made by the greater necessity of enl-
| ploylng cabs. The hotels are more eX-
penSive than with us, and do not begin
to give the same accommodations. The
smaller the hotel the higher the prices.
In the first place. there is not small
hotel in London that does not charge as
much for its rooms as any of the fash
i0nable European plan hotels on Broad
way IhC ltS StS VIII aver
age much higher, while the fees for
attendance and the like make up a bill
which is far outside. of the charge of the
The hotels and lodging houses of Lon-'
don are for strangers. No EngliShman
OF position Will. live in a hotel OF lOdg-
ing house if he is married. Keeping
house is regarded as matter of course
This, for person who has a family. is
the most economical way to live if you
are going to spend year or so in Lon
don. The restaurants do not compare
with the New York restaurants in the
| tirst-claSS hotels in New York. The
guide books recommend tourists to call
for their bills every two or three days.
1t would be better to go beyond this and
pay your bill every day, because
where bill is allowed to run on it is
apt to be added to in way wholly I'M
eXplainable and not at all comforting,
even to those who have long purses. The
only thing that have seen which is bet
ter in the English restaurants is the
mutton chops. The mutton chop with
us Is greasy and coarse. The English
mutton chop is sweeter and more deli
cate than our lamb chop. The English
bread is abOminable. You will hardly
find good piece Of bread in any of
the restaurants of London unless YOU
give a special order for a special dinner.
The regular English bread is alwaysvely
heavy or dry, and hard and stale. The
SO-called French breads are almost taste
less. The best breads are the, Vienna
rolls, but even these are unSalted. The
butter i'll all of the restaurants strikes
the American palate at,0nce as a kind
of fiat ointment. 1t isnever sailed, and
for a time, until one becomes accustomed
to the freshness: does not, taste at all
like butter! The roast beef OF, England
Will not compare, with. our roast beef,
The fact thatth9re is no good coffee
served at any of, the public restaurants
in England is so well known as not to
need special. mention, -
=, The cOmmOn,iMay of dining at the
public restaurants is from the Joint. IS
dinner from the Joints Served in agreat,
many of the good. EestailEantS, costing.
from about 80 cents to, S1.50 in our
money for each order. "A, dinner served
from a joint consists of, in. the first
place, a liberal allowance. of roast
meat. This is in some restaurants
brought up on little table wheeled
alongside of yours and sliced off in your
presence. With this is given boiled POI
tatoes and some other coarse vegetable.
sometimes greens and sometimes Brus-
OF vegetables appears to be confined
to Brussels sprouts, cauliflOwer and
kale. The dessert served with
the joint dinner is lettuce salad and
all you care to slice off of Stilton or
Cheddar cheese. These dinners are
very coarse and hearty, and are Just the
thing for man taking a great amount
of exercise. But there is nothing deli
cate about them. The absence of,
sweets from all the bills of fare will be-
especially noticed by an American. &
IS ,lN.,
which is met everywhere. 1t is an UNI
known dish in the United States. Yet
every farmer who raises cabbageS has
Brussels sprouts at his command. but
up to the present time the American
farmer has never dreamed of feeding
them to his family. He has always given
them to his cattle. These sprouts are
the buds which grow on the stump of >
cabbage after. the head has been re-
moved. l do not believe that any
American farmer ever did more than to
turn his cattle into the field to gnaw at
these stumps. 1t is doubtful if any agri-
culturalist, however economical, ever
took the trouble to gather them from the
field in any other way. There are
number of French restaurants in Lon
don, but they serve strictly French
meals. The best restaurants to please
the American taste are those kept by
Italians. The tipping in public restaur-
ants is now carried to such degree that
In the first place, threepence or
Gcents for every person is charged in
every restaurant bill: it is charged for
attendance, and is put in tie bill in
the. name of the waiter. But this is
not all. Ifyou. do not pay the waiter
on top of this you will be made to: feel
it if You ever visit the restaurant
again. You are not expected to pay the
waiter more than a ',.tuppence, but lie
must have seme acknowledgement Tie :
head waiter, wbe caSheS your bill, In
which attendance is charged up, wills
glare eat YOU like a hungry tiger. and
look as if he would like to murder yeti.,
if you do not give him something i'm thei
settling of the bill. The best way isl
considered to add these two or three:
| items to the final cost of the dinner amt
| try not to struggle against the systenl.l
1t is too well organized. l really Won
der what becomes of the money charged
i'll the bill as attendance. Does TT
go to the walters? If it does, thew
probably would not be so dead set
on insisting upon being tipped again.
This is probably the prOprietOr's tip, as
| everybody doing business in England
expects tip. Although the guinea no
| longer exists as coin it is still retained.
as price given by tradesmen. The;
extra shilling is their tip. +
The First Mention of Ice-Crea am.
| Pittsburg Dispatch.
The first mention of ice-cream that Isl
found in our history is in the account of
the festivities following WashingtOnss
1 first Inauguration as president, i'm the
| city of New York, in 1850. ..inOEg the
| ices used on that occasion was ice-crealil.
| which is said to have been prpparpd IL,